To add a little fuel to the what vehicle is best discussion: over the years since 1996 Ive travelled in diverse locations from Namibia to Mozambique, Cape Town to Tanzania and all the countries in between and even spent a few years in Australia. My 4x4s, both owned and work vehicles, included a Landy Series 3 (with Chevy 4.1 conversion), Isuzu 3.0 Tdi, Disco 1 Tdi, Pajero 3.5, Toyota Hilux 3.0 D4D, Fortuner V6 auto, 4 Prados from 3.0 KZTE, 4.0 V6 to 3.0 D4D in both 5 door and 3 door and manual and auto configuration, Patrol 3.0 Td, Touareg 2.5 R6 manual and most recently an Amarok auto. Only the Series 3, Patrol and Touareg ever let me down; the suspensionless Landy simply because it was an old lady and developed gearbox problems linked to the very torquey 4.1, the Nissan Patrol which felt bullet proof until the day it blew its engine on a quiet highway trip still on my way to the Kgalagadi near Kuruman after only 64,000km, the Touareg eating 2 clutches both after doing only about 60,000km each (probably the reason these were discontinued very soon after launch) and shearing an air con drive coupling leaving me without air con in the Namib too... Which were the most reliable? The Toyotas. Which was the least fun to drive? The Prado KZTE. I respected them all for where they could take me and treated them all very well. How did I feel about them? The most fun to drive was the Touareg. By far; an amazing machine. Which have I been most impressed with both on and off road in spite of all the 2 litre chirps? The Amarok. And it hasnt skipped a beat. And the 8-speed auto box with torque converter a revelation. What a package. An acquaintance of mine, a wildlife vet who does around 100,000km a year both on and off road is now about to take delivery of her 4th Amarok after faultless service from the others. Makes you think doesnt it?
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 08:17:49 +0000
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